From the Daily Caller: A small Silicon Valley school district approved $189,000 for a taxpayer-funded “energy healer” in May despite tight budgeting, which has resulted in cuts to elective classes and understaffing.
Mountain View Whisman School District hired the energy healer to “help leaders manage and reduce daily stress levels that negatively impact their wellbeing and therefore their effectiveness in role,” according to the contract. The district has paid the energy healer more than $315,000 over three years, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“It’s mind-boggling,” one parent, who chose to remain anonymous, told the Chronicle. “We’re so angry here.”
Parents of children within the district discovered the spending in a review of the district’s finances in the spring after it revealed it would cut some elective middle school classes, according to the Chronicle. The district’s budget also included $180,000 to a D.C. public relations firm and another $600,000 annually for leadership coaching.
The “energy healer” hired by the school, Alycia Diggs-Chavis, says on her website, “I work with people addressing physical and emotional pain, stress, and trauma from everyday life. I help facilitate their spiritual development and awakening and equip them with self-care and mindfulness tools so that they can manage these things for themselves.”
When confronted about the shocking expense, school superintendent Ayindé Rudolph argued that “all the tech industries around us do it.”
“I think the wellness of our employees is worth every dollar,” Rudolph told the San Francisco Chronicle. “How well our schools do is predicated on how well our teachers and our leaders do … I think we’ve come to a point where all organizations have to take employee stress seriously.”
However, parents are furious, and even some teachers are saying the school should be hiring a custodian to clean up the building instead.
Mike Netter, the leader behind the earlier push to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom, shared the following details:
A small Silicon Valley school district with a significant achievement gap has quietly spent taxpayer dollars on a long list of questionable expenses in recent years — including hiring a Washington D.C. public relations firm and a Sacramento-based “energy healer” who uses “chakra clearing” while charging nearly $1,200 per session for meditation.
A group of parents at the Mountain View Whisman School District said that for years they had believed their school board and superintendent were budgeting wisely for the 4,500-student district, but started looking into spending in the spring after it appeared some middle school elective classes would need to be cut.
That’s when they noticed the $189,000 school board-approved contract for the district leadership team to receive 160 guided meditation sessions with Alycia Diggs-Chavis. On her web site, Diggs-Chavis identified herself as an energy healer who at times uses “Sacred Geometry to do chakra clearing and alignment, and to perform energy healing on the spiritual, physical and emotional levels.”
It was the third year the board had approved a contract with her, totaling just over $315,000.
“We assumed the board was doing their job,” said one of the parents, who asked to speak anonymously out of fear of retaliation
The parents dug further into the roughly $110 million budget, finding multiple contracts totaling millions of dollars for contractors from across the country. The expenses included more than $600,000 annually for leadership coaching from various companies on top of the $180,000 per year for the D.C. public relations firm, Woodbury Associates.
The school board was expected to renew its contract with the PR firm Thursday night.Responsibilities include “identifying opportunities to spotlight Mountain View Whisman’s successes in print, online, TV, and radio media outlets, both locally and nationally” as well as to “draft press releases, statements, and other media documents to elevate district successes.”
The district also employs an in-house public information officer, whose annual salary was just over $264,000 in 2022, the most recent information available through state data.“It’s mind-boggling,” the parent said. “We’re so angry here.”
And so they should be. Remember it’s your California State and Federal tax dollars that should be spent on education. I think Superintendent Ayindé Rudolph pictured below owes all of us some answers (by the way his salary is about $363,000 a year)
His X handle is @AyindeRudolphLet’s tag him with a few questions and of course do fee free to call after all it’s your dime. Dr. Ayindé Rudolph Superintendent (650) 526-3552 [email protected].
A small Silicon Valley school district with a significant achievement gap has quietly spent taxpayer dollars on a long list of questionable expenses in recent years — including hiring a Washington D.C. public relations firm and a Sacramento-based “energy healer” who uses “chakra… pic.twitter.com/8uBu4KOEu8
— Mike Netter (@nettermike) August 23, 2024
A Silicon Valley school district spent taxpayer dollars on a long list of questionable expenses in recent years — including a Washington D.C. public relations firm and a Sacramento-based “energy healer” charging nearly $1,200 per session for meditation.https://t.co/Gbdav5awJ0
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) August 23, 2024
The Dennis Michael Lynch Podcast is available below, with the most recent on top. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show by downloading The DML News App or go to Apple Podcasts.
